Have You Made Something Lately?

What happens when a bunch of art teachers get together?

WE MAKE ART!

Each week, my elementary art team meets twice for an hour or an hour and a half each.  We have the PLC model at my school, and therefore all teachers get the opportunity to meet together to plan, share ideas, work on assessments and look at data for our art students.  I am the facilitator for this group.  One thing that has been missing from our meetings is the MAKING art. Shouldn’t art teachers be making things in order to learn best practice in use of materials, process and media? YES. They should!

One of my colleagues shared this collagraph lesson with all of us. It was an innovative use of scrap materials in our rooms, fulfilled our curriculum standard of collage and proved to be a great printmaking tie-in.  Most of us had never tried this, so lots of new learning took place as a part of our little art making session.

Sometimes getting back to basics of simple art making will make art teacher feel right at home. Getting out materials, trying new things and experimenting before you jump in head first with kids is always time well spent.  This art making session truly brought the joy back into our meetings. Since then, we’ve tried to add more making and trying into our PLC, instead of just talking and sharing. I think it’s a winner!

So, I must ask all of you- Have you Made Something Lately?